Alcohol

Should drinking age be increased to 21. It is no secret, that people drink alcohol before they turn 21. Stories about drinking on college campuses and high school parties are very easy to find. That is why underage drinking can be stopped if the law were changed. The major reason that people drink at an early age is because they feel it is fun and exciting to do something they are not supposed to. However, if it would be lowered to 18, then the trill of doing something illegal would vanish. Besides that, 18 is the age of adulthood in the United States, and adults should have the right to make their own decisions about alcohol consumption.

What is also very important, that other countries had demonstrated that young people, who are allowed to drink at the age of 18, don’t go wild. Although the legal alcohol purchase age is 21, a majority of college students under this age consume alcohol in an irresponsible manner. This is because drinking by these youth is seen as enticing “forbidden fruit”, a “badge of rebellion against authority” and a symbol of adulthood. According to National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism the major argument for lowering the drinking age is that prohibitions have always provoked over – indulgence.

Those of us who have attended college over the last 25 years can certainly attest to the fact that the law has done nothing to diminish freshman and sophomore access to alcohol. It has only pushed underage consumption underground. The statistics show that many underage people drive home after a night of drinking in order to hide it from their parents. If the drinking age were lowered, young adults would feel less pressure to notify their parents that they have been drinking. Ultimately, the greatest threat to people’s safety comes, when young adults drive home under the influence.

In addition, we say that 18 year olds are adult enough to kill and die in the armed forces, change the course of a nation in the voting both, judge other adults on a jury, be prosecuted as an adult, enter into binding contracts, operate automobiles and heavy machinery, smoke tobacco, own and operate a business, have a bank account and credit card, own a house, be married and have a family of their own. As a Froma Harrop, nationally syndicated columnist wrote in her Feb. 9, 2010 article “Age Discrimination for the Young” “Being adult who cannot have a beer is highly, absurdly inconsistent. “ According o her, in our imperfect world, the law has to draw lines, however arbitrary. But laws that only appear to address a problem by burdening young people aren’t wise, and they aren’t fair. For the past 20 years, the U. S. has maintained a Minimum Legal Drinking Age of 21, while in most other countries is 18, and in U. K. is as low as 16 in restaurants. According to John Cloud, writer for Time Magazine, all those countries with drinking age under 21 tend to have fewer alcohol – related problems, than we do in the U. S. In those countries, people learn how to drink from an early age and do so in the safe and supporting environment of the home.

Alcohol statistics say that teens coming from homes that had no alcohol and were not taught how to drink responsibly had more issues with alcohol. The behavior in these teens was less risky if parents allowed them to drink at home. In today’s world alcohol is and always going to be a problem no matter what age we are. However, there is no evidence of massive brain impairment, alcohol dependency, or underage alcohol abuse, which the experts tell us, will be the inevitable result of lowering the drinking age in the United States.

By lowering drinking age, young adults would be allowed to drink in controlled environments such as restaurants, taverns, pubs and official school and university functions. In these situations responsible drinking could be taught through role modeling and educational programs. Mature and sensible drinking behavior would be expected. If the drinking age was lowered, it will help kids realize how important alcohol is, and how mature we must become when we are under the influence of alcohol.

Annotated Bibliography: Drunk Driving Burke, Sheila. “TN Supreme Court to Hear Field Sobriety Case. ” The Tennessean. N. p. , 23 Mar. 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2013. This is a very interesting newspaper article out of the Tennessean. There is a huge case going on about drunk driving and field sobriety tests. This case consists of a 2009 DUI charge in Sevier County that was dismissed because car driver, David Bell, passed six field sobriety tests. The Tennessee Supreme Court has approved to take this case that could define if police officers can arrest people assumed of driving drunk after they have already pass field sobriety tests.

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Already three Tennessee courts have established that police needed the probable cause to arrest Bell and command a blood-alcohol test. Goldstein, Joseph. “Brooklyn Police Officer Is Accused Of Driving Patrol Car While Drunk. ” The New York Times. N. p. , 29 Feb. 2012. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. This story is about an officer in Brooklyn, NY. This officer was out when he crashed his patrol car into a pole. I’m sure you ask what the cause was. The officer had just been coming from a fund-raiser for the four daughters of Officer Peter J. Figoski, who was shot dead in December while responding to a report of a robbery in Brooklyn.

At this event the officer obviously had too much to drink while there. The officer was charged with driving while intoxicated and refusing to take a breath test, the police said. Hathaway, William. “Brain Study Reveals How Drinking Impairs Driving. ” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, Dec. -Jan. 2004. Web. 24 Mar. 2013. This article discusses how the brain responses to being drunk while driving. How they go about this is they use an imaging scan. A couple of scientist studied this at Yale University School of Medicine and the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut.

What I think about the situation is if you’re intoxicated you shouldn’t be behind the wheel of any kind of automobile. That’s just like taking medicine and getting behind the will to drive. A lot of people compare this to smoking weed and driving a car. There is no difference in these if you’re pulled over your going get the same punishment you would get if you’re were drinking and driving. The best way to fix these problems is to just not operate an automobile in these situations. This article is reliable in that is gives a lot of information on brain study of drinking impaired. Hsu, Tiffany. “Teen Drunk Driving Declines as Gas Prices Rise. Los Angeles Times. BUSINESS, 3 Oct. 2012. Web. 24 Mar. 2013. As we all no gas prices have went up and down in the last few years. Although everyone thinks this is a bad thing it has helped the drunk driving rates go way down believe it or not. This article simply states the reason is that they really spend less time on the roads. Teenagers are especially delicate to upsurges in gasoline rates and declines in economic situations. I do for sure think that’s the reason for the decrease in the past years. More people have to manage their money better with gas prices going up and the more they spend the less they have to buy alcohol.

A lot of teenagers today age try to car pull to the parties. This is sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing. The reason they do this is to save gas and also they try to pick a designated driver that will not be drinking to drive them there. This is the positive thing about it. This article is good in that it makes you think about all the situations and look outside of the box. Jacobs, James B. Drunk Driving: An American Dilemma. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1989. Print. This book talked about drunk driving all together.

This book wants to bring all the information together as a whole and put it all into a book, or as some would call this book a resource book. Professor Jacob’s thinks he’s managed to accomplish this difficult task. He had divided his book into three different parts called an anatomy of the social problem of drunk driving, an assessment of the role that criminal low and procedure play in defining and dealing with the problem, and a discussion of the effect of various social institutions have had an are likely to happen in the future on the social control of drunk driving. JENSEN, CHRISTOPHER. “Jan. 1 Is Worst Day for Drunken Driving. New York Times. N. p. , 31 Dec. 2011. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. This article talks about all the events on New Year’s. What do you think the worse day of the year is for fatal crashes? As we all know everyone’s out on New Year’s Eve going to parties and various places. A lot of alcohol is drunk that night. A lot of people still drive even after they drink. This is what is so dangerous about the situation. Over half of all the crashes that happen on years half of them involve a drunk driver with a blood-alcohol content of at least 0. 08, according to an analysis by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

If people know they’re going to drink why do they even go and then leave? The worse time that all the crashes happen is right after the ball drops a little after 12. One of my friends had this exact thing happen to him. He left a party then ran off the road and luckily he was alright and only came out with a few scratches. Kordunsky, Anna. “Tougher Penalties Sought in Russia for Drunken Driving After Accident. ” The New York Times. The New York Times, 26 Sept. 2012. Web. 26 Mar. 2013 This source is about the Russian legislators wanting stronger measure against drunk driving. This is due to horrible accidents that happened.

The driver of the car crashed into a bus going at the speed of 125 miles per hour. This not only killed the driver but it also killed seven other people. Five of them were teenagers with learning disabilities. The driver of the car already had a number of drunken driving issues in the past. He also drank for two day before even getting behind the wheel of the car. This is a very sad story. What could he of been thinking going 125 miles per hour. He may have been so intoxicated that he couldn’t control his self. I guess we will never know what was going through his head while he was doing this.

The worst thing about the whole situation is the killing of seven insistent people, and even more worse that five were teenagers with learning disabilities. Situations like this makes you open your eyes and realize it’s just not worth it. Lerner, BARRON L. “Friends Still Let Friends Drive Drunk. ” Well Friends Still Let Friends Drive Drunk Comments. The New York Times, 18 Oct. 2012. Web. 24 Mar. 2013. This article is about a 21 year old guy named Matthew Grape. He chose to get into the passenger seat with one of his Duke University fraternity brothers. The driver then hits a tree only suffering minor issued.

However Matthew doesn’t survive the crash. Reports from the press say the driver was charged with impaired driving. This is a horrible situation. This is why it is very important to think before you get into a car with somebody. You should never get in the car with an impaired driver. I bet Matthew hadn’t be thinking about all the bad thing that could happen to him, and he probably never thought getting into that car would end his life that night. Lerner, Barron H. “The Discovery of Drunk Driving. ” One for the Road: Drunk Driving since 1900. N. p. : n. p. , n. d. 14-37. Print. This book talks bout all the effort that’s been around to eliminate drunk driving. This isn’t something that just came about in the last few years. This has been going on since they first started inventing cars way in the pass. Before automobiles actually came out they had already been studying and discussing the issue of drunk driving, which I find to be very interesting. This didn’t change their mine about automobiles. They also had already been through the same situation with horse and buggy, but it still wasn’t as dangerous as the automobiles. Mears, Bill. “Drunk-drive Blood Tests Divide Supreme Court. CNN. Cable News Network, 09 Jan. 2013. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. This article is about alcohol related car crashes in the United States. This amount is approximately 10,000 a year. This is just way too big of a number. Also law enforcement wants more flexibility to determine whether a suspected drunk driver is, indeed, over the limit. However the Supreme Court was openly separated in oral arguments about whether law enforcement agency can obtain a blood test without a warrant to define intoxication levels. The outcome was they get tested at the scene and also get test at the jail.